Over the past fifty years, inflatable evacuation slides, such as the evacuation slide shown in FIG. 1, have been designed for use with passenger vehicles. Typically, an inflatable evacuation slide is required on passenger vehicles where the doorway height is such that passengers would be unable to exit from the door uninjured.
In such applications, a girt is used to make the connection between the evacuation slide and the door sill of the passenger vehicle. A girt generally is used to make a connection between any inflatable structure and a rigid structure so as to permit inflatable attachment and to allow the transfer to mechanical stress. For example, girts may also be used to attach life rafts to an aircraft or floats to rotorcraft.
The necessity of having to engage (connect) and disengage (disconnect) the evacuation slide to and from the passenger vehicle door each time the door is closed and re-opened has dictated the use of a girt bar and fabric girt on traditional passenger vehicles to facilitate this process. The girt bar concept has been used for fifty years and has undergone many changes.
In the prior art designs, as illustrated in FIGS. 1-2, the fabric girt 12 is attached at opposite ends of the girt bar 48, which results in a load being applied at the ends of the girt bar 48, creating a substantial bending moment at the center of the bar 48. As a result, girt bars tend to flex and, if inadequately designed, could lead to catastrophic failure. Accordingly, most prior art girt bars are made from high strength materials that are capable of withstanding such loads, which are often quite heavy as well.
Furthermore, the girt bar design requires attachment points in the floor of the aircraft to secure the girt bar to the aircraft when the evacuation slide is deployed. These attachment points can accumulate ice, dust, or other obstructions that may prevent the girt bar from properly engaging with these attachment points.
In order to reduce the weight associated with girt bars, as well as problems associated with the girt bar attachments, it may be desirable to have a lighter girt attachment design that does not require the use of attachment points in the floor of the aircraft.